Review: Serving Pleasure by Alisha Rai

Reviewed by Shelly

It’s been a while between books, (the first being published in 2009). I can’t say that this would have been worth the read if you prefer ménage, as was the first in the series, but this is still a very good m/f book. It can be read as a standalone.

Rana Malik, the oldest of the siblings, has been good for the past year. In her mother’s eyes, if she didn’t change her old ways she was never going to have a man marry her (*whisper* – she’d slept with too many). But Rana’s never really wanted marriage and babies; she just wants the love that comes with companionship. Micah Hale is Rana’s newest neighbor. He’s a British artist who’s had all the best things in life – success, friends, family, and yes, women. Unfortunately, not all good things last and after an attack Micah, just couldn’t handle dealing with his life and escapes to America to avoid all the things that haunt his past.

I really enjoyed this story and to be honest only thing that kept me from loving it was that I thought Micah was a weak character. But before I get there, I’ll tell you what I really liked.

Rana’s character was someone who I could be friends with. She’s personable, doesn’t throw around blame, and is a good sister and daughter. Even the conflict with her mother about what’s best for her, never did I think that Rana stepped out of character. You know when the main character does something that totally shocks the reader and just seems out of character and offers no reasonable explanation – I never felt that with Rana. I enjoyed her humor, her internal dialogue and even the rationale for offering Micah a temporary bed-fellow.

This book takes place about a year after book one and Mrs. Malik is still in the dark about the whole story in that situation. If you read the first book in the series about Devi, the middle sister, she’s not changed either. Pleasantly, there’s quite a bit of interaction between her, Rana and the youngest sibling, Leena. Some of my favorite scenes are the interactions between the three.

Now back to Micah. He’s got scars; chicks dig scars, but I didn’t dig Micah so much. That his actions during the attack made him skittish, said a lot about his character. If he were a small (in stature) man, I might not feel that way but you’re big, strong, and muscular – are those muscles for show or purpose? I took them for show. During a violent attack from his model’s boyfriend, he plays dead while his model is left to fend for herself . Then the whole running away from his family and friends thing didn’t sit well with me either. Because while he might not say it out loud, he blamed everyone else for not just what happened, but for the way he now looks as well. He really came off as a spoiled young man who grew into a spoiled grown man and didn’t know how to work through adversity and never really cared to learn either. Sadly, I didn’t think the HEA resolved that issue.

Overall, Rana and her sisters won me over. I liked that she enjoyed waiting tables and doing the front end part of the restaurant business and I liked that she was okay with the choices that she’d made, even when they didn’t make her mom happy. Her chemistry with the other characters from friends to family pulled my heart strings a little bit too.

I’ll definitely continue with this series if there’s a 3rd book about the last sister, Leena.